JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

1883-1946British

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."

John Maynard Keynes is perhaps the foremost economic thinker of the twentieth century. On economic theory, he ranks with Adam Smith and Karl Marx; and his impact on how economics was practiced, from the Great Depression to the 1970s, was unmatched.

Notably, in 1909 Keynes first published an article in the Economics Journal, about the effect of a recent global economic downturn on India and also accepted a lectureship in economics funded personally by Alfred Marshall. As a result, Keynes's subsequent earnings rose further as he began to take on pupils for private tuition. By 1913 he had published his first book, Indian Currency and Finance. He was then appointed to the Royal Commission where Keynes showed considerable talent at applying economic theory to practical problems. Interestingly, his written work was published under the name "J. M. Keynes", though to his family and friends he was always known as Maynard.